Its a great film, because it is.
And: They could never make that today, because its a film about high schoolers killing high schoolers.
Past a certain point in American history, that was only allowed to happen in real life.
Credit: Paramount Network
And then the Paramount connection announced a small screen remake ofHeathers.
Two big hot TV trends in this announcement.
Everything gets rebooted, yes.
I have seen five episodes of the newHeathers.
I dont like it, but this isnt a review.
In the wake of the February 14 horror at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland… One of those things wound up being pretty good, and then the other two areShooterandThe Punisher.
None of the above featured a scene quite as incendiary as the sequence that begins the fifth episode ofHeathers.
Its meant to be a video game: One of the main characters inHeathersis playing it on his smartphone.
Now, obviously, a scene with a school shooting sounds awful right now.
If you think the makers ofHeathersdont understand the fire theyre playing with well, youre probably right.
And the show has much deeper, weirder problems that can make the whole thing feel misbegotten.
It tries to combine sincere aspirational identity politics with brutal camp cynicism, and the mix justneverworks.
Anti-Trumpists produce Trumpist art: Kids, this was 2018!
But, look, theyve made this thing now.
You have to imagine everyone knew this, right?
The people who madeHeathers, the online grid that produced it.
You make a show like this, film a scene like that, because youwantcontroversy.
But this really isnt about politics!
Its about art, which can be political but is never just political.
Which just meansHeathers in its blathering, candy-coated, stop-hitting-yourself way has tapped into something.
There are school shootings on American television too often; cant one of those shootings should be fictional?
The school-shooting scene inHeathersstuck with me, much more than the shows wrongheaded woke-cartoon provocations.
It disturbed me, and I believe there is value in feeling disturbed by art and entertainment.
Disturbed, like, Elephantwas full of crap and Ive never forgotten it.
The Paramount internet mentions in their statement respect for the victims, their families, and loved ones.
There is a hot industry theory that Paramount is trying to pushHeathersaway from the shows generally bad reviews.
Start a full court press in the media.
Gaze into our modern dystopia.
